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Redditch United, my home town team, and regular pullers of 123 people, packed into the Valley Stadium Redditch!
This is set to be a biggie!!!!
Starting with a budget for transfers of ................................. £0.00p I feared the worst.
A young Walsall defender was already there on loan, along with an ageing midfield stalwart and 1-2 slightly above average youngsters.
Expecting a safe mid table finish from the board gave me the feeling that this would be a long hard season, so I set about finding squad players and coaching staff.
I somehow got a former international goalkeeper to see out his last year with us, and it turns out he is a top quality assistant manager!!! There was a ripple of pleasure that he had joined, and this meant I could do some searching for appropriate players. I rustled up a couple of 16 y/o who could play multiple positions, and a quick scottish search turned up a dc and st who were (slightly!) better than my current dross!
Pre season saw me make a tidy profit with firendlies against local rivals, which gave me a budget of 3k!!!!
Decided on a 3-5-2 formation, hard tackling and lumping it forward to a couple of hard working forward. The three in the centre of midfield were my best 3 players, with an amc who had a penchant for spectacular strikes! Add to that the veterna wing back I got for 1k, and the captain being another usefull wing back, things looked ok for the start of the season.
So 6 games in, 2 losses, 2 draws, 2 (home) wins. Not all that bad. One astonishing factor is the scottish st has a great free kick on him and soon has 3 in 6 games. Not bad me thinks. Cant find much from my am and other strikers, so set about looking for loans.
Not much success there, but did rustle up 3 wims in the early Fa cup rounds, and sat comfortably in 11th after 10 games.
A home tie against a lower league team provided me a delightfull 5-0 FA cup win, and a trip to Valley Parade in the first round proper!!!
Off the back of a 5 game unbeaten run in the league (not so impressive as it contained 4 daws either 1-1 or 0-0) gave me little hope of an upset.
However!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the great FM spirit, we went and had a right go!!!
I had had enough of scoring so few goals (just 12 in the first 12 games, although conceded just 9), and had found a disgruntled 22 y/o striker from a League two club. He had fallen out with the manager and was happy to come to us for the season (out of contract as well at the end of season!). I decided to throw hime staright in against the league 1 side. So we start well, hard tackling, pressing and slightly more defensive than normanl, and it takes until the 32nd minute for them to get what is described as alucky goal. Still we go in at half time and I declare myself thrilled.
2nd Half, stays the sames, and at 60 mins still just 1-0. Damn it, I push midfield forward, the amc with the good shooting the one we push forward, and he does it! Creates havoc in the box, ball drops to loanee striker, and 1-1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crowd (of nearly 7,000!) in raptures (well the 10-or so of mine who made the journey!!!)
We go for full time wasting and every trick in the book is tried. I am OFFICIALLY going for PENS!!!!!
ANd then disaster. 89:44 and a former premiership striker nets one after a Conference style scramble 2 yards out, and thats that. I am however delighted with the effort, and my rag tag bunch seem capable of giving 100% for their new manager, and are not scared by reputation or occassion. Oh, and I made 65k out of the little trip!
This gives me the chance to send a scout out to scandinavia. In the meantime I then go out of the FA trophy to a non-league bunch (to a penalty!), and my first tea cup was well and truely thrown!!
The next couple of months saw more wins than losses, and a healthy 9th position. Loanee striker is fast approaching double figure, and I have found a decent foil for him, with bags of work rate and teamwork, if lacking in the finishing!
The next few months aims are:
-To bring through the two lower league youngsters throguh, thus giving the heavily worked wing backs a rest, and offering the youngsters a chance.
-To find a working partnership for the quality st I have
-To re-negotiate 7 contracts (slightly lower and longer for various and jetison 1 or 2)
-To find some young prospects to bolster the squad
- To tinker with tactics for home and away games, to add more firepower at home, and be stronger away from home when we have a lead.
Yes quinn. Offered him my max wage (£190) and he said no, looked at the options and found he could be player assistant, offered him this and he agreed. He is 37 and retiring this season.
I was wondering how you came across this goalie, that's all. I can't recall my scouts ever coming across international goalies when I was in Conference N/S...
He replied to an advert for scout, didn't take any notice of him first time, but went back for a 2nd look and found he had a player, ANd staff profile. The rest is beautiful penalty saving (but refusing to re consider retirement) history.
Originally posted by iamthequinn:
I was wondering how you came across this goalie, that's all. I can't recall my scouts ever coming across international goalies when I was in Conference N/S...
You know how it is, you take the dog for a walk in the park and there, lying on the path, is an ex-international goalie. You pick him up and Robert is the husband of your Aunt.
Conference North Extravaganza 
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